So-called ''fuel surcharges'' on award tickets are a big fraud on consumers. Travellers should identify the airlines that perpertrate this fraud and then avoid them on all flights. Fuel is an essential for operating the plane, not an extra.

Some European carriers have been backing away from fuel surcharges lately, like SAS and LOT, so it pays to research the carrier on this issue.

Then there is one US-based carrier that is the rotten apple in that basket, and as one would expect, it is DL. They are are only US-based carrier that imposes these surcharges, although so far only on flights that originate outside the US. Those of us based in Europe, for example, would have to be insane to use DL as a carrier of choice.